A Feral Darkness (54 page)

      
"And they said
come
. Eztebe knows we'll be late for dinner. Your choice."

      
She took the car keys.

      
"Call me," Emily said, standing in the doorway with her arms crossed and a knowing smile on her face as they headed for Masera's SUV.

      
Brenna had become accustomed to driving it these past days—it purred along like a luxury car, and didn't jolt Masera around like her truck would have. Now she drove it in a daze, and when she found the right address, pulling in the driveway to sit next to the spanking new
Nuadha Kennel
sign, she just sat there with her hands on the wheel. The house stood before them on a large rural lot with lots of grass and carefully landscaped trees; the realtor sign still leaned against the garage. A newer home than Brenna's, but old enough to have charm instead of a cookie-cutter look. The back was entirely fenced, and several adult Cardigans appeared at a side gate to announce their arrival in tones of great importance.

      
Masera reached over and removed the keys from the ignition. "It's all right, Brenna. You don't have explain anything to them. I told them I was in the market for a Cardigan—and I am. I wasn't just spinning words way back when."

      
"Okay," Brenna said, her voice low. She nodded to herself, and repeated it. "Okay." Then she slid out of the car, tucked her braid into her back pocket, and went around to the passenger side to help him ease the long step to the ground. He was getting tired; she could tell from just how hard he leaned on her, and she only then realized how long she'd kept him out on this first day of full mobility.

      
"I'll last," he said, which was the first she knew how much of her thoughts had made it to her face; she wrinkled her nose at him and he grinned. "Let's go."

      
So she took his hand and walked up to the front door, where she would have hesitated if he hadn't been there, but because he was she punched the doorbell with her finger even as they stepped onto the landing.

      
The middle-aged woman who answered the door greeted them with a smile and a thick Irish brogue. ""Twas you who called us, then? I'm Kathleen O'Meara. Please come in." And she opened the door wide, leading the way through to the back of the house without preamble, taking them past moving boxes both empty and full and to a set of wide sliding glass doors and an enclosed porch. "I was telling the young man, we've just got a litter ready to go, but they're mostly show prospects, and I really do want to place them in show homes. We need to establish a presence here in the States—" through the porch they went, a brightly lit place full of crates and water bowls and a folded exercise pen.

      
"Showing's not a problem," Masera said. "I'll be showing obedience in any event."

      
She gave them a second glance, one with interest and more intent appraisal. "Is that so, then?" she said as she led them through another sliding door and into the back yard, where they were immediately accosted by five Cardigans, tails wagging. But Brenna had eyes only for the second exercise pen, a portable enclosure of wire panels set up in the far corner of the yard where the grass was thick and the sun was bright. She only vaguely heard Kathleen O'Meara usher the dogs into the house, or the comments she made to Masera as they headed for the ex-pen, where Kathleen unhooked one of the panels and let the puppies spill out. Six of them, a couple of months old and still floppy-eared, aside from one or two oddball exceptions and a single brindle pup with both enormous ears already pricked upright.

      
"The brindle is already placed," Kathleen said, and that was the last Brenna heard, for her gaze fell on a stout-legged little tri-color, his jagged white collar gleaming white and his struggling ears charmingly speckled, running straight to her feet as if he knew he belonged there. She clutched Masera's arm, unable to say a word. And then she fell to her knees and gathered him up to find familiar love-me eyes framing a white muzzle and a perfectly symmetrical white blaze.

      
"We just lost one," Masera was saying, as Kathleen murmured an understanding, "Yes, I know the look." And they went on to talk about the things a good breeder asks any prospective owner—their facilities, their background, the family members, their schedules—while Brenna buried her face in the puppy's ruff and cried in disbelieving joy. Until at last the woman said, with some apology, that while their normal policy was to let the new owners choose a registered name, for this first litter in the states they'd decided to name the pups ahead of time. "This particular puppy hasn't ever taken to anyone like this before. We call him Nuadha's Silver—"

      
"Druid," Brenna whispered, resting her cheek against the top of his puppy-soft head. "Druid," she said again, while the rest of the puppies clamored for her attention, climbing her legs and licking the exposed skin of her arms as Masera's hand grazed the top of her head in a comforting caress. Druid brushed his whiskers against her face, inspecting her.

      
Not the same. It couldn't be the same.

      
She looked up at Masera, found him grinning as broadly and foolishly as she'd ever seen.

      
It could be
better
.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other Works by Doranna Durgin
FANTASY
Changespell Saga
:
Dun Lady's Jess (Winner, Compton Crook Award)
Changespell
Changespell Legacy
Barrenlands (prequel)
King's Wolf Saga
Touched by Magic
Wolf Justice
Stand-Alone Fantasies
Wolverine's Daughter
Seer's Blood
A Feral Darkness
ROMANCE
Action Romance
Shaken and Stirred (Femme Fatale Novella)
Chameleon (Smokescreen Novella)
Exception to the Rules
Beyond the Rules
Heavy Metal Honey
Survival Instinct
Hidden Steel
Checkmate: Athena Force
Comeback Athena Force 2
Paranormal
Sentinels: Jaguar Night
Sentinels: Lion Heart
Sentinels: Wolf Hunt
Demon Blade
The Reckoners Series:
The Reckoners
Storm of Reckoning
MYSTERY
Nose for Trouble
Scent of Danger
FRANCHISE BOOKS
Star Trek: Next Generation
Tooth and Claw, #60
Earth: Final Conflict
Heritage
Angel
Impressions
Fearless
Mage Knight
Dark Debts
Ghost Whisperer
Revenge
Ghost Trap
SHORT STORIES
Harvest of Souls
Fool's Gold
A Bitch in Time
The Right Bitch
Bitch Bewitched
Mornglom Dreaming
Bummed out
The Yoke of the Soul
Feef's House
Hair of the Dog
Call from the Wild
Just Hanah
Emerging Legacy
The Scoria
Bitch Bewitched